News
Silent watchers record the most heinous crimes
On Monday afternoon, an unidentified man walked along Dam Street, Colombo, and placed a heavy suitcase on the roadside.
A shop owner on Dam Street who feared the bag held a bomb tipped off police. Officers arrived in no time, opened it, and found the body of a woman without her head.
Within 24 hours, police were able to solve the case thanks to several cameras, which are fast becoming a tool of their trade. Most business establishments including hotels and shops have installed these to prevent theft.
The victim's family members arrive to identify the body. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Officer-in-Charge of Dam Street Police, Chief Inspector Ajith Peduruarachchi, told The Sunday Times his officers’ first actions, when informed about the body in the bag on March 1, were to secure the crime scene and locate CCTV cameras in nearby shops.
The investigators used CCTV footage to trace the path of the man who murdered the 30-year-old victim. He has since been identified as 51-year-old police Sub-Inspector Dikari Mudiyanselage Premasiri, a father of three who, by his own account, had been having an affair with the woman.
“The CCTV footage revealed that the suspect, seen dragging the suitcase, had got off a Route 143 private bus that had arrived from Hanwella. The footage helped us to identify the bus by its plate numbers,” CI Peduruarachchi said.
The bus driver, W.A. Nandasena Perera, 51, and conductor, Selladorai Paranagama, 45, were taken in for questioning on Monday evening. The bus was impounded.
Mr. Perera said he and the conductor had had no idea the body of a woman was being transported in the suitcase, and only knew that a man with a large suitcase had boarded the bus at Hanwella on Monday.
“Both of us told police we recalled a man boarding the bus with a huge suitcase before we took off for Colombo at 11.45am,” Mr. Perera said.
He said the conductor had at one point asked passengers, “Whose bag is this, near the entrance?”. The man now known to be Premasiri had replied that it was his.
Police were able to confirm the statements by viewing footage from CCTV cameras mounted on the front of a hotel facing in the Hanwella bus stand, and on a mortgage broker’s shop on the upper floor of the hotel building, which showed the killer boarding the bus at Hanwella.
Cameras revealed Premasiri had come to the bus stand on Monday morning in a three-wheeler. Police traced and questioned the vehicle’s driver, who said Premasiri had hailed the three-wheeler outside the Midway Reception Hall, which is also a hotel. The driver said he had not charged Premasiri for the ride as he had been heading for Colombo.
Police inspect the hotel room
On Tuesday, March 2, Hanwella police were given an anonymous tip-off that a bag filled with women’s clothing had been dumped at Hanwella bus stand.
Crime OIC of Hanwella Police, Inspector Sujith Hettiarachchi, 52, said that while he was inspecting the bag and marking off the bus stand area as a crime scene, the owner of the Midway hotel, T.V. Chandrawansa, had come up to him and said he suspected that the man the police were hunting might have stayed at his hotel.
“He had a newspaper in his hand, showing me a picture of a suitcase and saying the man had had a similar bag. Following his information, I headed to the hotel and met his wife, D.G. Sujeewa, who was managing hotel documentation,” SI Hettiarachchi said.
The hotel’s guest register showed, on page 73, that the suspect, 51-year-old Dikari Mudiyanselage Premasiri, living in Badal Kumbura, Moneragala, and the victim, 30-year-old Dilinai Yasoma Jayasuriya of Theppanawa, Kuruvita, had checked in at 10pm on Saturday, February 27, and stayed until Monday morning.
Ms. Sujeewa said she had seen the man leaving with a large suitcase.
“I was suspicious as the girl who checked in with him did not leave with him,” Ms. Sujeewa said.
She said there had been no sounds indicating violence from the couple’s room. “The room they stayed had no evidence of violence or any trace of items they used,” she added.
Ms. Sujeewa said that around 8.30am on Tuesday, Premasiri had called the hotel to ask whether she had noted down the couple’s identity card information and made records of their stay.
He had repeatedly demanded that she delete that information, and when she said she would share information with police if requested, he had hung up the phone.
Police said they had initially been unable to find evidence as Premasiri had thoroughly cleaned the hotel room. On Wednesday, however, Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) at Hanwella used chemicals and infrared lights to detect bloodstains in the toilet attached to the room.
The blood was found in the basin, commode and on the doorknobs of the room, and compared with blood from the victim’s body, found in the suitcase, for matching DNA.
Police found CCTV footage recorded on Sunday showing Premasiri buying a knife from the market in Hanwella.
Having ascertained from the hotel owners that Premasiri had not had a suitcase when checking in at the hotel, police are questioning all the bag shops in the area to learn where the suitcase had been purchased.
Badal Kumbura police were notified on Tuesday night that the man being hunted by police over the headless body in the suitcase murder came from their area.
Badal Kumbura OIC, Chief Inspector Sunil Dissanayake, said his officers found that Premasiri he had gone into hiding in a nearby forest, leaving a letter written to his wife. In the letter, he had explained that he had been having an affair with the victim and declared his intention to commit suicide because he was being hunted by the law. He had asked his wife to forgive him and care for their children.
Premasiri was later found dead in the forest, with officers ruling the death as suicide.
“We deployed 60 officers but we were only able to find the suspect on Wednesday morning, hanging from a tree after he had consumed poison,” Inspector Dissanayake said.
He said police are searching for the dead woman’s head, and believe Premasiri had put it into a backpack. Police are searching the forest for the backpack an also the banks of the Kelani River as they suspect Premasiri could have tossed the bag into the river in the Hanwella area, close to the hotel where he had been staying.
Other spots being searched for the victim’s head include Premasiri’s house and the general Badal Kumbura area, and Buttala, where the killer had been stationed as a police officer.
Although the woman’s body was identified by her brother, Prabhath Jayasuriya – a member of the Kuruvita Pradeshiya Sabha – police are conducting a DNA test to confirm the identity.
Mr. Jayasuriya said his sister had left home on Saturday, claiming she was going on pilgrimage to Sri Pada.